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Starting a priest
So you want to be a Priest? Priests are healers. They are responsible for the staying power of any high-end group, and their job can be thankless, but it is essential, and most experienced players realize this. As a priest, you have a little less versatility than some of the other classes, but when things get hairy, you'll have your hands so full you won't even realize it. If you're considering playing a priest, you'll have to ask yourself a few questions, first: * Do I mind taking up a caster role, in the back of the fight, as a low DPS class? * If I'm going to do PVP, am I comfortable with the pressure of frequently being the #1 target? * Can I think quickly, and handle a large set of hotkeys in the process of getting my job done? * Do I mind the pressure of being the most indispensible member of a group? * Do I subsequently not mind the fact that I may not get a lot of attention or glory in this role? These are all things a priest will deal with, and if you've played one you're familiar with this. It's not a very standard role, and it shows because not a lot of people play a priest. Still, it has its advantages, including your immense popularity when people need to set up a group (this will also be the peak of your popularity, by the way, as once the group wipes, you get the blame too), and a lot of respect from power-gamers if you do your job well. Races The first thing to consider with a priest is what race to make them. The following races can play a priest: * Alliance ** Dwarves ** Humans ** Night Elves * Horde ** Trolls ** Undead When choosing a race for your priest, there are a few things to consider. The first is their racial spells. Each race of priest gets 2 race-specific spells, presumably explained by the fact that they worship different deities. Each race also has their own starting areas, some of which tend to be more or less congested based on the popularity of the race. You probably won't want to decide your race based on how easy the early levels will be, but you probably *will* want to consider your leveling strategy based on this, especially if you're starting on a new server. In the end, though, personal taste should be the greatest factor. One class may make a better priest now, but as is the nature of MMORPGs, balancing a game is a continual process, and things can change. The following is a breakdown of the different races. Human Write me! Night-elf Write me! Dwarf The steadfast dwarves have ever been the bedrock of the Alliance. Their mountain fortresses are marvels of stone and iron, only matched by their legendary skill in battle. The home city of Ironforge lies near the outpost of Anvilmar, which will serve as your starting point. While the dwarves are well known fighters, recent events have suggested that they have a larger part to play in the world and they have bent themselves to the task of discovering what that may be. As such, they have become masters of discovery and knowledge as often as they have become masters of the blade and warhammer. Dwarves receive two spells, 'Desperate Prayer' at level 10, and 'Fear Ward' at level 20. * Desperate Prayer - Desperate Prayer is an instant, self-only healing spell. It is a zero mana spell and has a cooldown of 30 minutes. The amount of healing will increase as you level. * Fear Ward - Fear Ward protects the friendly target against fear. The next fear effect used against the target will fail, using up the ward. Lasts 10 minutes. Undead Starting in the dreary forests of Silverpine, the Forsaken priests struggle to forge a path for themselves in their new roles. How can you be a preacher for the gods when the gods have abandoned you? From a role-playing and storyline perspective, this is a prominent factor for the Undead priest, one that does not figure much into your gameplay experience, but one that can easily make its way into how you play your character. Obviously someone is out there, because the calls of the Forsaken priests are still answered ... but by who? The Undead receive two spells, 'Touch of Weakness' at level 10, and 'Devouring Plague' at level 20. * Touch of Weakness - Touch of Weakness is a buff that the Priest can cast upon him or herself. It lasts for 60 seconds, and once cast, imbues the next succesful melee hit with extra damage, and affects the target with a debuff that reduces their damage done by a constant amount. The amount of damage done and damage reduced increases with levels. * Devouring Plague - Devouring Plague is a Damage over Time (DoT) spell that inflicts a sizable amount of damage upon an opponent over a 24-second span of time. Every point of damage suffered by Devouring Plague is returned to the Priest in health. This makes for a very useful spell in both PVP and tough PVE encounters. The recast timer on this spell prevents it from being used frequently, so its best not to use it unless you know you're in for a tough fight. The amount of damage done by Devouring Plague improves with increased spell levels. Troll The trolls of the Darkspear tribe travelled west to Kalimdor with Thrall many years ago. They've since settled down in and around Durotar, though the desire to return to their homelands in Stranglethorn Vale still resides in the hearts of many of their ranks. The priests of the troll race serve a similar role to the shaman, that of healer and spiritual leader. Troll priests receive two spells as well, 'Hex of Weakness' at level 10, and 'Shadowguard' at level 20. * Hex of Weakness - Virtually identical to the undead 'Touch of Weakness' spell. Once cast, the spell lasts for 60 seconds or until a melee hit is registered, whichever comes first. Upon a succesful hit in melee, the priest's victim is then struck with additional damage and a debuff that lowers their melee damage for the duration of the curse. The amount of damage done and the amount of damage reduction both increase as the level grows in power. * Shadowguard - Similar to the shaman's spell 'Lightning Shield', casting Shadowguard surrounds the priest with a force of shadow. When the priest is struck in combat, the Shadowguard hits the assailant for shadow damage. The amount of damage done by Shadowguard improves with additional spell levels. Talents At level 10, every class begins to accrue what are called 'Talent Points'. You can apply these points instantly to your character by accessing the 'Talent' menu, which becomes accessible upon reaching level 10. For a look at the Priest talents and how they interact, you can generally head over to The WoWVault Talent Tool. You can also look at other players' preferred talent layouts for an idea of how you may want to build your own priest. Of course, you may want to build your priest in your own way, in which case you may still want to look at this to at least help yourself plan things out. Priests receive talents in three different trees: * Shadow - These represent the darker side of priesthood. The shadow talents focus largely on increasing a priest's damage output through his or her Shadow spells. Specializing in shadow talents lends towards a more solo. approach to the game, as a shadow priest's abilities don't generally stack well with teammates, especially in large PVP environments or tough instanced dungeons where priests are generally in short-demand, and needed for their superior ability to act as a healer. Many players will specialize in shadow talents up to level 55-60, and then switch to a Holy/Discipline hybrid. * Discipline - The discipline spells focus on inner strength, boosting a priest's mana, improving their buff spells significantly, etc. Many Discipline talents are very useful no matter what you specialize in, particularly the 'Improved Power Word: Shield' talent, which reduces the length of time you must wait before casting another shield by half. * Holy - Holy talents are vital to maximizing your efficiency as a healer, which is why most high-level priests elect to focus on these talents. The holy line improves your healing power, lowers the mana cost of heals, and reduces the casting time of your healing spells. There is more to the holy line, too, so you may want to look through the aforementioned The WoWVault Talent Tool to get a full look. Talent discussion Use this space to editorialize about different talent builds. There's a lot of discussion about priest builds, so it can't hurt to put some overviews of the discussion here. What else? Running out of ideas and time at the moment. Feel free to include anything else a possible priest may want to consider in the creation and early progression of their priest. ---- Priest,Starting Priest,Starting Priest,Starting